Iowa woman claims father was a prolific serial killer
Fox News’ Garrett Tenney reports on developments following an Iowa woman's claims that her father Donald Studey was a serial killer.
The Iowa woman who allegedly described in horrifying detail how her father was a prolific serial killer who murdered up to 70 people in his lifetime gave police a conflicting story in 2021, according to a local report.
Lucy Studey McKiddy told a Fremont County Sheriff’s deputy in 2021 that she had "heard stories that there could be up to 15 bodies" buried near her father Donald Dean Studey’s Thurman, Iowa, home but said she knew personally of only five, the Des Moines Register reported Thursday.
McKiddy’s 2021 statements in documents in a sheriff’s incident report obtained by the news site are different from those she made to Newsweek for a story that published last week.
Exterior of the Fremont County Sheriff's Office in Iowa (Fremont County Sheriff's Office Facebook)
In the Newsweek piece, McKiddy described how her father had killed dozens of young women over the course of 30 years and enlisted his children to help bury his victims.
"I know where the bodies are buried," Studey told Newsweek. "He would just tell us we had to go to the well, and I knew what that meant."
McKiddy went on to describe how she always feared "he would kill me because I wouldn’t keep my mouth shut."
The woman’s claims in 2021 were similarly chilling, with details about how she watched her father and two others carry a body from the trunk of a vehicle, and her suspicion that her dad sexually assaulted and killed a 15-year-old girl, the Register reported.
McKiddy told detectives multiple other stories.
A deputy sheriff behind a patrol car. (iStock)
And Studey, who died in 2013, had a history of violence and run-ins with the law, including threatening to kill relatives, according to a different incident report obtained by the Register.
McKiddy has not responded to Fox News Digital’s multiple requests for comment and confirmation.
But Studey’s other daughter, Susan Studey, denied her sister’s claims and rejected that she was ever ordered to help her father move a body, according to Newsweek.
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Susan went on to say she first learned about these claims against her father when she spoke to her sister "about a year ago."
"I’m two years older than Lucy," Susan told the news site. "I think I would know if my father murdered. I would know if my dad was a serial killer. He was not, and I want my father’s name restored."
Susan stressed that her father "was not the man [Lucy] makes him out to be," according to the report.
"He was strict, but he was a protective parent who loved his children," Susan told Newsweek. "Strict fathers don't just turn into serial killers."
A woman who answered the phone at a number appearing to belong to Susan hung up when contacted by Fox News Digital on Wednesday afternoon.
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Fremont County Sheriff Kevin Aistrope has not responded to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment but confirmed to the Register that his office had been investigating the allegations. Newsweek reported last week that two human remains detection K9s reportedly made discoveries at locations McKiddy had suggested.
Aistrope told the Des Moines Register investigators do not yet have any proof other than a pair of cadaver dog alerts.
He said the FBI had also begun probing over a year ago but had "backed away in the last couple of weeks," according to the Register.
"I’m not going to let it die. I’m just not gonna let that happen," Aistrope told the site. He later added, "We’ve got to go with Lucy.
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"No matter if they say it’s not true or say she’s crazy or whatever they can say, we have to look into it. We have no other choice."
A spokesperson for the FBI’s Omaha, Nebraska, field office, would not say if the agency was involved in the investigation.
Fox News Digital’s Ashley Papa contributed to this report.
